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Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has demanded loyalty from his fellow Republicans and has repeatedly compelled him. Yet in recent weeks, as Trump has been aggressively trying to reverse the election results, his actions have caused Republicans who previously supported him to actively oppose him.
The most significant example is the release on Sunday of a recording of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s Saturday phone call with Trump, in which the president is heard urging him to help “find 11,780 votes,” the number that Trump would need to defeat President-elect Joe Biden in Georgia, and suggested that “there is nothing wrong with saying … you’ve recalculated.”
Prior to the leak of the call, Raffensperger refuted the president’s characterization of their Twitter conversation by saying, “Respectfully, President Trump: what you are saying is not true. The truth will come out. “
Respectfully, President Trump: What you say is not true. The truth will come out https://t.co/ViYjTSeRcC
– GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) January 3, 2021
Raffensperger, a Republican who strongly supported Trump’s election and re-election, has been the target of Trump’s ire since the November election and has been criticized by the president for failing to investigate various rumors and unsubstantiated claims about voting in Georgia.
Raffensperger told the president on Saturday’s call, repeating Monday that Georgia officials and investigators have debunked those rumors, to Trump’s disbelief.
“Did you consider it a legal request when the president asked you to seek the votes?” George Stephanopoulos of ABC asked Raffensperger during an interview Monday morning.
“I am not a lawyer. All I know is that we will follow the law, we will follow the process. The truth matters, and we have been fighting these rumors for the past two months, ”Raffensperger said.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and Trump supporter, has faced Trump’s ire since his election loss to Joe Biden. [File: Brynn Anderson/AP Photo]
This episode is the latest example of Republicans publicly taking on Trump, many of whom are now speaking out as Trump encourages his supporters to challenge the election results during Congressional ceremonial vote recount on Wednesday. He’s also fanning the flames of protests on the streets of Washington, DC during that count.
At least 12 Republican senators and 140 members of the House, far from an overall majority, have said they will vote to object to electoral votes from certain states on Wednesday, effectively slowing the count and filing a procedural protest. His efforts are not expected to prevent Congress from completing its count and marking the final step on Biden’s path to inauguration on January 20.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has led Trump’s water legislatively for the past four years, opposes the objectors’ plan and has warned his party’s senators not to slow down the process. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was the first Republican to defy McConnell’s wishes last week, with others, led by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, following his lead.
Elected Republicans are in a political dilemma, as standing up to Trump results in heavy reprimands, insults and threats from the president that he will support those who challenge his critics within the party.
The “Surrender Caucus” within the Republican Party will fall into infamy as weak and ineffective “guardians” of our Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2021
Given that polls show a large majority (three-quarters in some polls) of Republican voters raising doubts about the legitimacy of Biden’s victory, some accuse pro-Trump Republicans of acting out of self-interest rather than in the best interest. from the country.
“The heinous ploy to turn voters away may increase the political ambition of some, but it dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic,” Trump critic Mitt Romney, a Republican senator from Utah, said in a statement Sunday.
But as Trump faces his last two weeks in office, more key Republicans are speaking out against the president – not just members of Congress, but other prominent Republicans as well.
Over the weekend, Romney and fellow Republican senators Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski signed a bipartisan statement condemning the planned objections.
“The 2020 elections are over. All challenges have been exhausted through reports and appeals, ”the statement read. “At this point, further attempts to question the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election run counter to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine the confidence of Americans in already determined election results.”
I joined a bipartisan group of senators to issue the following statement regarding the upcoming Congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results: pic.twitter.com/UzcQaaH8mV
– Senator Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) January 3, 2021
Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, a Trump ally, is distributing a letter to his colleagues urging the opposition to objections, Politico reports.
“With regard to presidential elections, Congress has no authority to make abstract value judgments regarding the electoral laws of any state or the manner in which they have been implemented,” Lee’s letter says.
Another Trump ally, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, told Fox News on Monday that he “will not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes on January 6,” prompting a quick rebuke from Trump on Twitter.
How can an election be certified when the numbers being certified are verifiable INCORRECT? You will see the real numbers tonight during my speech, but especially on JANUARY 6. @SenTomCotton Republicans have pros and cons, but one thing is for sure, THEY NEVER FORGET!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2021
When Congress began his new term on Sunday, Texas Representative Chip Roy, who once worked for Cruz, called his fellow Republicans and demanded that those in the states where they are contesting the election results do not sit down.
Roy argued, “Those representatives were elected through the same systems – with the same voting procedures, with the same signature validations, with the same widely applied decisions of executive and judicial branch officials – as the electors chosen for the President of the United States states under the laws of those states, which have become the subject of national controversy. ”Roy’s idea was rejected, but his action was notable in his disagreement with the Trump party line.
Meanwhile, all 10 former US defense secretaries, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, George W Bush’s defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Trump’s first defense secretary James Mattis, echoed those senators on an op-ed in the Washington Post published Sunday.
“The time to question the results is past; the time has come for the formal counting of electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, “the secretaries wrote, adding that” efforts to involve the United States armed forces in the resolution of electoral disputes they would lead us into dangerous, illegal situations and unconstitutional territory ”.
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